Matthew Perry hailed for '17 Again' comedy chops: 'He'd figure out a scene down to the atoms'

Get ready to feel “17 Again,” again.

The 2009 comedy that allowed dissatisfied-with-life Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) to revert to his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron) − thanks to a magical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) and mysterious vortex − turns 15 on Wednesday.

In the body of his younger self, Mike reconnects with Scarlet (Leslie Mann), his high-school sweetheart who now wants a divorce, and their two teens (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight). Mike willingly shucked any chance he had at playing college basketball after learning he and Scarlet were expecting, and he grew resentful over the years about how that choice impacted his life.

As in "It's a Wonderful Life," "it's appreciating how rich you actually are, even when it doesn't extensively feel that way,” director Burr Steers says of the movie’s message in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “You get in these patches of your life that can be grim, and you get caught on that without realizing everything you have.”

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For Efron, getting the chance to work with Perry, who died last October, stands out as a highlight.

“It was such a special experience to be able to work with him and to learn from him,” Efron told USA TODAY in February while promoting “Ricky Stanicky.” “He just informed my sense of humor growing up, and the amount of time I've spent impersonating him all through my teenage years into my adulthood and the things that I took away from watching and learning from him. … Being able to share time and play the same character as him was just really, really special.”

Steers remembers what it was like working with young “sponge” Efron and the incredibly thorough Perry and reveals his favorite scenes from the movie.

Question: What was it like working with Zac Efron?

Burr Steers: It was fun. Initially I was hard on him, trying to break him of Disney kid actor habits and sort of giving him a Meisner (acting technique) baptism in acting. When he realized Matthew was his older self, he started really specifically learning Matthew's mannerisms and getting a sense of them.

One of the other things in shooting the movie was taking (Zac) and putting him in with players and just watching him consistently up his game as he was doing this scene with Leslie Mann or with Matthew in different ways, just being a sponge and picking up from all these talented actors.

What was your experience with Matthew Perry on the film?

Perry's delivery and timing were really incredible. He was kind of the ultimate sitcom actor, in the best possible way. ... (Matthew would) come to set and just put on a great working attitude for everybody, for the crew, and setting a really good example for the younger actors in the cast.

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What do you remember about how Matthew approached the character and the movie’s comedy?

He'd figure out a scene down to the atoms (laughs). He was so, so specific and would just be constantly coming up with things and different ways to do things.

He would figure out how to say a line or react. There was no moment that he hadn't considered in the scene. You had to rein him back because he just brought you so much, so many ideas. And it was great. It was a great atmosphere to work in.

Do you have a favorite scene, either because of how it came out or the memory of shooting it?

There's a scene between Tom Lennon (who plays Mike’s best friend Ned Gold) and Matthew Perry where they’re having breakfast, and Tom is munching on his cereal. And it's just so loud and obviously irritating Matthew Perry, as he's just crunching away. And Tom's delirious because it's just great comedy without any punch lines, just these two really talented comedic performers. And then Zac and Tom's “Star Wars” lightsaber duel, which they pretty much figured out on their own, with the help of the stuntman, and got more and more elaborate.

“17 Again” is streaming free with ads on Roku and available to buy or rent from Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube.